Ford

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday he hopes President Trump’s Republicans lose both the House and Senate in the midterm elections, saying voters should punish Trump politically for his escalating trade war with Canada.

“Hopefully he’s going to lose the Senate. He’s going to lose Congress. I hope so, and hold him accountable,” Ford said. “But we’ll see how that goes. We aren’t going to interfere in the U.S. election.”

Ford has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken Canadian critics, accusing him of trying to strip industry out of Ontario and move it south of the border as the two trade personal insults and threats.

Ford’s comments came two days after Washington escalated the dispute by banning some Canadian dairy products and motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages after Canadian retaliatory tariffs took effect on about $20 billion in U.S. goods. Trump also moved to shut Canadian products out of large, long-term U.S. government contracts.

“He’s not reliable at all,” Ford said. “He could make a deal today and then change his mind. And we’ve seen that over and over again.”

Still, Ford said he believes Trump wants an agreement before the midterms and that Canada should return to negotiations as soon as possible.

“I truly believe President Trump wants a deal before the midterms,” Ford said. “I could be wrong, but I think it’s best that we sit down and get a deal.”

Last year, Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada after Ford’s Ontario government aired an anti-tariff television ad in the United States using former President Ronald Reagan’s criticism of tariffs.

The feud repeatedly has turned personal. In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Ford mocked Trump for keeping a portrait of Reagan near his desk while pursuing tariffs the former president had criticized, saying Reagan would be “throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on.”

Trump described him as “the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford.”

Trump also signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” a name Canada does not recognize.

Ford said Thursday that Trump unintentionally strengthened Canada by forcing it to reduce its dependence on the United States.

“The only two good things Donald Trump has ever done for Canada,” Ford said, were that “he woke us up” and “he united the country like I’ve never seen before.”

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

About five miles separate Agoura and Westlake high schools, but there seemed to be a great deal more distance between them Friday night, as host Westlake throttled the Chargers 38-7 in a nonleague game.

Most of that gap came via the right arm of sophomore quarterback Ford Green, who dissected the Chargers, completing 14 of 18 passes for 257 yards and four touchdowns. For Green, and the Warriors (2-0), the victory eliminated any lingering doubts about their season-opener last week, a thrilling, 32-26 triple-overtime win against Newbury Park. Though Green threw two touchdowns last week and ran for the winning touchdown, he threw two interceptions and tallied only 139 yards through the air.

Against Agoura (1-1), Green completed his first 10 passes and finished the first half with three touchdowns and 219 yards. He added a fourth touchdown in the third quarter. Westlake finished the scoring in the fourth on a one-yard plunge by running back Nazir Esanbor and a 35-yard field goal by kicker Gabriel Goroyan.

“Last week showed how we fight as a team when we come together, but tonight showed how we can dominate,” Green said.

Though graced with two top-flight receivers in Charles Davis and Demare Dezeurn, both of whom have committed to Cal, Green spread the wealth Friday, completing passes to six Warriors. Those included a 14-yard strike to Davis on the Warriors’ first possession and a 57-yard touchdown pass to freshman Drew Gamboa later in the first quarter. Green also completed a 58-yard second-quarter touchdown pass to Erik Green and a 29-yard pass to Dezeurn early in the fourth.

While praising Green’s composure, accuracy, consistency and feel, Westlake coach Rick Clausen also singled out the offensive line.

“Obviously Game 1 wasn’t what we were looking for, but they practiced really hard this week and focused on what they needed to work on and didn’t worry about the exterior stuff,” he said, “They gave [Ford] the chance to succeed.”

Ford trumpeted the depth of his receiving corps.

“I trust every single one of my receivers that they can get the job done and they did,” he said. “And we’re a brotherhood, a family, and the ball gets spread out. Even if one guy is doing really well, I know every one of them will be ready when it’s their time.”

A special type of indie film teaches you how to see it as you watch it — not as an instructor might a student, but as an ally would a new acquaintance. Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore feature, “Dreams in Nightmares,” about a road trip, a friendship and a Black queer landscape anchored by care, has that quietly confident appeal, like being invited into something intimate, then let free when your curiosity is at its zenith.

Ford made their name with the micro-indie, micro-focused “Test Pattern,” an act of upending as it dissected an interracial relationship’s fault lines in a moment of crisis. (It’s on the Criterion Channel now.) This time, with the drive of a born iconoclast, Ford sheds plot even further — save the loose construct of three besties in search of their absent fourth. What emerges, as the plot spans a North America whose inviting (or alienating) textures are attentively captured by cinematographer Ludovica Isidori, is an ode to the centering of chosen family when the realities of life, especially for people of color, always seem to demand soul-crushing acquiescence.

For creative writing professor Z (Denée Benton), recently let go from her Los Angeles-based university and uncertain about her future, a recurring dream featuring black-and-white imagery, a door and an enticing expanse of nature puts her in a journeying state of mind. Hopping to Brooklyn to connect with Tasha (Sasha Compère), a nervy consultant also recently shorn from her job, and Lauren (Dezi Bing), an emerging poet, this close-knit trio first decides to go dancing, then to seek out their celebrated artist pal Kel (Mars Storm Rucker), last heard from in the Midwest and who’s cut off all communication.

That framework, though, isn’t treated like some act-structured gauntlet in Ford’s telling. This is a road trip, after all, in that having a direction — to Pittsburgh, then Iowa City, Kansas City, Santa Fe and across the border — allows for some directionlessness, for different speeds, artful touches (conversations that become camera-facing interludes) and delicate epiphanies of feeling. The trio stops for a lively trans poetry reading. There’s a comically weird dinner with Kel’s ex, Sabrina (a scintillatingly eccentric Jasmin Savoy Brown). A stopover to see Kel’s parents (Regina Taylor and Robert Wisdom) illuminates, for better or worse, where some of these friends have come from and why moving forward matters.

In not adhering to the expected rules of conflict-based drama, “Dreams in Nightmares” can confound. But when you realize that this is exactly the point of Ford’s open-ended exploration, you begin to understand why Ford would rather create a roving, sensorial continuum that feeds intrigue (kudos to composer Ohyung) instead of cornering you. The performances bear that out, from Benton and Bing’s steady inner light to Compère’s coiled, watchful Tosha, a compelling portrait of skepticism inside this cocoon of warmth.

Yet of course, just when Tasha appears to be a fulcrum for narrative revelation, Ford re-balances everything, in waves of grace and gentleness, to remind us that sometimes the less we label, the more we’ll observe about the abiding importance of love and belonging. Ford has internalized the humanity of filmmakers like Mike Leigh, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Jim Jarmusch. Even the most awkward parts of the film feel uniquely alive. But as “Dreams in Nightmares” wends its way to a close, it’s also easy to believe you’re witnessing a percolating virtuosity that’s all Ford’s own.

Canada will unveil retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Tuesday as tensions escalated with President Donald Trump pressing the Canadian government to “fall in line,” while Prime Minister Mark Carney accused Washington of offering a bad deal.

Canadian officials, including Finance